Milk kettle for domestic use

ABSTRACT

A kettle for heating and boiling milk, and consisting of a substantially conventional vessel having side and bottom walls, and further provided with a partition wall parallel to and spaced from the said bottom wall at a level generally of the order of one tenth of the overall height of the vessel, said partition wall being apertured at a position formed adjacently to a brief arc of the side wall, the area of the thus formed passage being generally from two to five percent of the area of said partition wall, the kettle being designed to effectively prevent boiling over of the milk.

[451 May 1, 1973 limited States Patent [191 Piagnoli MILK KETTLE FDRDOMESTIC USE FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 99/316 ......99/403 1/1960France........'.........................99/403 France n hm g n E 9 1A599 H 1 l I 055 ,3 372 I02 5 H 4 o ml m 0 i 3 .mm n .m G LB 0 0 W W 1 a DM 0 e m m m AA J Inventor:

[22] Filed Primary ExaminerSamuel F. Coleman Assistant Examiner-NormanL. Stack, Jr. Attorney-Michael S. Striker Appl. No.: 46,752

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data [57] ABSTRACT A kettle forheating and boiling milk, and consisting of June 16, I969 ltaly.........

[56] References Cited the area of said partition wall, the kettle beingdesigned to effectively prevent boiling over of the milk.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,927,701 9/1933Ferrando......t.............l.......99/3l6X 2,850,391 9/1958 9/1929Gunsberg 1,728,572 Pearson.....................,............99/317 5Claims, 5 Drawing Figures .PATENTEDMAY 1 I973 INVENTOR. 1 -90 'fiaquouMILK KETTLE FOR DOMESTIC USE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 'the chance ofrising and overflowing of milk when boil- The fact that milk abruptlyboils over when heated is well known to anybody. This event occurs byreason of the nature of milk which, when bubbles of vapor are beingformed where its temperature is the highest, that is at its lowest layeradjacent to the bottom wall of the kettle, such bubbles cannot overcomethe surface tension of milk and escape at the liquid surface. Theboiling milk becames a foamy mass of rapidly increasing volume and boilsover" the edge of the cooking vessel.

This event is of great disturbance, apart from the wasting of asubstantial part of the heated milk. The overflowed milk falls outsidethe kettle, contacts the hot heating element or the flame of the burner,causes soiling of the range or stove, bad odors and so on.

When a gas stove is made use of, the overflowing milk extinguishes theflame and the continued outflow of gas leads to well known very seriousdanger of intoxication, explosion and others. I

Many types of milk kettles intended to limit such very undesirablenuisance and also danger have been proposed and manufactured. Such priorart kettles are generally provided with a perforated plain or variouslyshaped cover or diaphragm positioned at the upper portion of the vessel,at a short distance from the upper edge thereof, for the purpose ofslowing down or limiting the rise and overflowing of the boiling foamymass of milk. Such prior art kettles have acknowledgedly been proved farfrom being as effective as desirable.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a I new andimproved milk kettle for domestic use, which is surprisingly effectiveand simple of construction and service.

THE INVENTION In brief, the improved kettle of the invention comprisesan essentially conventional upwardly open vessel characterized in thatit is provided with an essentially horizontal partition wall located ata short vertical distance from the bottom wall of the vessel, saidpartition wall having one or more passages adjacent to the vessel's sidewall and of area greatly smaller than the area of same partition wall.Preferably, said partition wall is located from one to two centimetersabove the vessel's bottom wall, generally at one tenth of the height ofthe kettle. Further, the passage is formed by a cutout in the contour ofsaid partition wall.

Still further, the passage or passages are vertically aligned with theconventional spout formed in the upper edge of the vessel or pot toensure complete pouring off of the milk present in the chamber thusformed below said partition wall. Preferably, aid partition wall isremovably secured within the vessel or kettle, for complete cleaning ofthe same.

These and other features and advantages of the invention will be madeapparent form the following detailed description of few embodimentsthereof and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

THE VIEW OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of asimplified embodiment of the invention, taken in its symmetry planeindicated at 1-1 of FIG. 2; I

FIG. 2 which is a cross-sectional view the same embodiment, taken in thehorizontal plane indicated at II-II in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3is a vertical sectional view similar to that of FIG. 1, and partlya side elevation, of a most preferred embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the kettle of FIG. 3,taken at the planes indicated at IV- IV-IV--Iv in said FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the partition wall removed from thekettle of FIGS. 3 and 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring first toFIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a milk kettle comprising a kettle body orpot 10 of essentially conventional configuration, essentially verticallyextended, having preferably but not necessarily a cylindrical side wall,a planar bottom wall 12, a spout 18 and a handle or kettle holder 20.Said pot is conventionally made of sheet metal, such as by being punchedor turned or spun from aluminum sheet, according to current art.

According to the invention, the kettle comprises a horizontal partitionwall 14, the edge or contour of which, adjacent to the side wall of thevessel, is discontinued or recessed to from a passage 16 of small arearelatively to the cross-sectional area of the kettle, said passage 16being adjacent to said side wall and vertically aligned with the spout18.

The interior of the vessel, adapted to contain the desired amount ormass M of milk, is divided by wall 14 into two spaces, that is a space Sabove the wall 14 and a space S beneath said wall. I

The lower space S is of a volume greatly smaller than that of upperspace S because the partition wall 14 is spaced only a small distancefrom the bottom wall 12. Preferably, such partition wall is positionedfrom one centimeter to two centimeters above the bottom wall. Morepreferably, the vertical distance between bottom and partition wall isabout one tenth of the overal height of the kettle.

The opening or aperture 16 can be formed by cutting off a circularsegment from the partition wall, which can be formed from a metal sheetalso, the chord of said segment being about half of the diameter of thekettle. Generally, the area of the passage 16 is chosen to comprisebetween 2 to 5 percent of the entire area of the partition wall. Theabove preferred values are however indicative but not limiting of theinvention.

In addition, it is preferred that, as shown, the opening 16 is adjacentto a portion of the side wall, which forms part of the contour of saidopening, so that all amount of milk, present in the lower space S, canbe easily poured off through the spout 18. Such adjacency is not howevercritical, provided that the passage (or passages) is formed well near tothe said side wall and greatly asymmetrical in the vessel.

It has been surprisingly found that the provision of a partition wall,positioned and apertured as shown or essentially as above, is extremelyeffective for minimizing and actually zeroing the chance of milk boilingover. It is believed that the bubbles, formed adjacently to the bottomwall 12, superimposed to a suitable source C of heat (such has anelectric heating element, for example) are caused to flow through theopening 16 follow ing a path as approximately indicated by arrows inFIG. 1 and then condense in the less hot mass of milk, present in theupper space S, the said less hot mass being a great deal bigger that theboiling mass present in the lower space S.

Preferably, the improved kettle is constructed as shown in FIGS. 3 to 5and most preferably but not necessarily made of stainless steel sheet.In such event, its bottom wall 112 is provided with an external prettythick layer of copper or preferably of aluminum for better heattransmission, as known in the art of cooking pots.

The kettle, provided with a spout 118 and with a suitable kettle holder(not shown), comprise a removable horizontal partition wall 114 having aconcave cutout at 124 to form the passage 116. The partition wall 114 ispositioned and maintained at the desired level in the kettle, by placingit into abutment from above on an inwardly protruding rib 128 formed inthe kettle side wall. Other means such as a plurality of evenly spacedinward projections can however be provided for defining the properposition of the partition wall. Similarly, various means cen be providedfor detachably securing the said partition wall in place and forexpediting the removal and positioning thereof.

For example, the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 has a partition wallprovided with a handle 122 and with a plurality of resilient downwardlyskirting tongues 126, evenly spaced about its edge, shaped forresiliently engaging said rib 128. Other means, such as screw means or abayonet engagement can be made use of.

It is therefore evident that the above and other modifications andstructural details are comprised within the spirit and scope of thisinvention.

Iclaim:

1. A heating vessel for milk, comprising a substantially cylindricalvessel having a side wall and a bottom wall; and transverse partitionmeans subdividing said vessel into a larger volume upper chamber and asmaller-volume lower chamber, the volume of said lower chamber beingapproximately one-tenth of the volume of said upper chamber, saidpartition means having a predetermined area and including a segmentalaperture in said transverse partition means communicating with saidupper and lower chambers in the region of one peripheral portion of saidpartition means and adjacent to said side wall, said aperture having aneffective area which is between 2 and 5 percent of said predeterminedarea of said partition means.

2. A vessel as defined in claim 1, said partition wall being spaced fromsaid bottom wall by a distance of between substantially l 2 cm.

3. A vessel as defined in claim 1, said partition wall having acircumferential edge; and wherein said aperture is a cut-out provided insaid edge and extending inwardly thereof, said cut-out having anoutwardly directed open side proximal to said side wall.

4. A vessel as defined in claim 3, said side wall having an upper regionprovided with a pouring spout, and said aperture being at leastsubstantially vertically aligned with said pouring spout.

5. A vessel as defined in claim 1, said partition wall being a discreteelement; and further comprising securing means removable securing saidpartition wall in said vessel body.

1. A heating vessel for milk, comprising a substantially cylindricalvessel having a side wall and a bottom wall; and transverse partitionmeans subdividing said vessel into a larger volume upper chamber and asmaller-volume lower chamber, the volume of said lower chamber beingapproximately one-tenth of the volume of said upper chamber, saidpartition means having a predetermined area and including a segmentalaperture in said transverse partition means communicating with saidupper and lower chambers in the region of one peripheral portion of saidpartition means and adjacent to said side wall, said aperture having aneffective area which is between 2 and 5 percent of said predeterminedarea of said partition means.
 2. A vessel as defined in claim 1, saidpartition wall being spaced from said bottom wall by a distance ofbetween substantially 1 - 2 cm.
 3. A vessel as defined in claim 1, saidpartition wall having a circumferential edge; and wherein said apertureis a cut-out provided in said edge and extending inwardly thereof, saidcut-out having an outwardly directed open side proximal to said sidewall.
 4. A vessel as defined in claim 3, said side wall having an upperregion provided with a pouring spout, and said aperture being at leastsubstantially vertically aligned with said pouring spout.
 5. A vessel asdefined in claim 1, said partition wall being a discrete element; andfurther comprising securing means removable securing said partition wallin said vessel body.